MCALL: Cackowski, Hightstown hold off Hamilton

The Cream Ridge resident spent much of his junior year with the Notre Dame High varsity baseball team riding the pine.

Given an opportunity to start with his Hightstown American Legion Post 148 baseball team Saturday, the 16-year-old right-hander jumped at the chance.

It did not matter that the opponent was Mercer County American Legion League-leading Hamilton Post 31. Those players stem from Steinert High, which is Notre Dame’s chief baseball rival, so Cackowski was pumped.

Advertisement

He may not be as big as some of the pitchers Post 31 will face, nor does he throw as hard, but Cackowski made a name for himself by going the distance to hold off Hamilton, 5-4, at Steinert’s Rich Giallella Field.

He was able to do that while scattering nine hits, including two over the first five innings.

Then when Post 31 made a mad dash to the finish line in the sixth and seventh innings, Cackowski proved up to the challenge.

Even after his main nemesis, Hamilton leadoff hitter Austin Constantini, fought off an 0-2 count with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, and Cackowski fell behind Shane Plunkett, 3-0, the young Post 148 pitcher was able to battle back to get two strikes, then entice Plunkett to pop out to end the game.

“I was getting a little tired,” Cackowski said. “When my coach came out to talk to me, he told me to stay calm, throw the ball over the plate and let them hit it. I worked through it.”

So did Hightstown.

After scoring four runs in the third inning on RBI singles by Austin Kurey and Max Kutler, plus a two-out, two-run single by Matt Jacobsen, Post 148 failed to get much else going versus Post 31 starter Steven Loney.

Even though reliever Matt Moticha came on and got Hamilton out of a two-on, one-out jam in the sixth, he was not as lucky in the top of the seventh when Matt Chipego came up with a two-out single to score Kutler from second base for a crucial insurance run.

Post 31 got on the board in the sixth when Constantini singled in Sean O’Boyle.

Then the home team was down to its last out with P.J. Wiegartner on second base after a double in the bottom of the seventh when O’Boyle singled him in.

Pinch runner Alec Gerasimowicz was running on the pitch and took third base when Shane Keledy beat out an infield single. After Keledy stole second base, Constantini was down to his last strike when he singled up the middle to plate both runners and make it a one-run game.

“I think we came out flat,” Constantini said. “We seemed like we were ready, but they really came out ready. And they hit the ball from the start.”

Mercer County Community College-bound Constantini did the same in going 4-for-4 with three RBIs. Then he stole second base as Cackowski fell behind Plunkett, 3-0.

But the tying run never materialized as Cackowski made the most of his opportunity by getting Plunkett to pop out to shortstop Pat McNulty and help Post 148 start the season 2-0.